Advent

Warning, this will be a story in two parts, words first as i am at work and wide awake (it is the middle of the day so i should hope so!0 and then pictures which i have to put on at home because that's where the technology is but i am always too tired to write by the time i get there!

This weekend was Bax' kindy Advent Festival (for those of you who are not Steiner-rites, we have festivals for EVERYTHING and celebrate Adventmore than Christmas, best not to ask why)

So off we went with our smartest clothes on and our basket of honey and banana muffins (with pneapple and coconut in too). All the children played in yvonne's lovely little kindy garden for a while at first while all the adults chatted. it was such a lovely blue day and all the little girls were wearing pink and white with lots of frill and tuile. Then the children were welcomed one by one into the front room where the tree was with all its red and gold decorations (the steiner community cover their trees with early Christian signs which look a bit pagan/egyptian - very striking).

The room was very quite and there were lots of candles and one of those silhouette lanterns with images of mary and joseph and the donkey. then Yvonne told the story of Mary and Joseph buying a vain and silly donkey and going to the long journey to Bethlehem to pay their taxes and of Jesus being born in the stable and all the children sang songs at various intervals thoughout the story with actions - one song about the donkey, then one about the ox and then one about the mouse who helped clean up the stable.

When the story was finished Yvonne gave each parent their childs work from the term including a little tableau made of wax opf Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus.

then all the children went on a procession singing Christmas carols, out of the house and around the garden adn in through the back door where there was a table laid out with a veritable corucopia of goodies, massive strawberries, cakes, biscuits, buns, grapes, pinapple, juice - it was heaving under the wait.

All the children sat around the table and all the adults stood around the outside serving them.

Bax did the procession with daddy in tow but happily sat next to the oldest girl at kindy (G says she's a bossy Princess) and ate and ate (including six choclate santa's - he can now get the tin foil wrapping off by himself which is a concern).

After the meal the children went back into the garden and all the way up the path a line of shoes had appeared. (Another bit of Steiner, You put your shoes out and if you have been good St Nicholas puts choclates and dried fruit in them, if you have been naughty Black peter puts coal in instead!). Each pair of shoes had been made by each child to match their feet and each pair was now filled with chocolates tied in bright red cellophane. Most of the kids including Bax put their shoes on and danced around the garden. G lay on the little hill in the middle and gave Izzie a bottle.

Then we all said good bye to Yvonne and went off to dinner with friends.

I wish you could all have been there to see such a wonderful celebration - a real Christmas with no commercial muck infecting it.

Child sized and gentle.